Marilyn Writes

Marilyn MacGruder Barnewall began her career as a journalist with the Wyoming Eagle in Cheyenne. During her 20 year banking career, she wrote extensively for The American Banker, Bank Marketing Magazine, Trust Marketing Magazine, and other major industry publications. The American Bankers Association (ABA) published Barnewall’s Profitable Private Banking: the Complete Blueprint, in 1987. She taught private banking at Colorado University for the ABA and trained private bankers in Singapore.

Sunday, December 24, 2017

Tis The Day Before Christmas

To many people, these
words define Christmas. They are correct but miss the reason for
the season.

To many, Christmas is
about an infant born on a cold winter night and placed in a manger. It is
about Joseph and Mary and Jesus. It’s about shepherds in a field who are
frightened when they are visited by angels. It is about three kings who
traveled so far to give gifts to the newborn King (though Jesus was almost two
years old when they arrived).

700 years before the
birth of Christ, Isaiah (9:6) tells us “For to us a child is born, to us a son
is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be
called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

As our society has
become more secular, it is apparent that Christmas has become more of a people
day than a God day. Love, family, friends, children, Santa Claus, giving,
food… all of these things should be part of our daily lives as Christians
rather than something we celebrate for a day annually. Instead, our
government removes Christmas scenes from public property, totally reversing the
meaning of our founders who limited government from involving itself in
religion rather than governing how it should be celebrated.

Hallmark Christmas
movies are a good example of the move towards secularism. First, let me
make clear that I love their holiday movies and, time permitting, have been
known to watch them. It is so nice to get away from the sex, violence and
filthy language so much a part of Millennial entertainment! Hallmark
movies, however, portray Christmas as a season of miracles and romance (and
it’s true that wherever there is hope, miracles happen) but there is little
spiritual inference.

There is no doubt that Christmas is a time of miracles, but the
great miracle we celebrate on December 25th has little
to do with saving a romance. It has to do with saving people from
themselves.

A sermon I listened to yesterday asks a crowd of people a simple
question: “Do you believe human beings have dignity?” Everyone
raised their hands. A second question followed: “Are people born
with dignity?” Half of the hands were raised and the other half were
not. The Pastor was pointing out that though people tend to agree with
one another on big issues, the devil is truly in the details.

He pointed out that
atheists and Darwinists (most people do not realize that Charles Darwin was a
Christian at the time of his death) believe they came from a big pool of mud in
which a couple of cells got together by chance and over millions of years
eventually produced a human being. Atheists, he added, do not believe
they are going anywhere after death… so they come from nothing and go
nowhere. He is right that there is not much “dignity” in that
scenario. So much for the idea of being born with it. It is
something we earn as we develop our character.

To put it into language
anyone can understand, Christmas is God in a manger.

That massive power that
created the world and a universe became a human baby. He loved the human
beings He had created in the beginning and saw that they needed help to
understand what He expected of them if they were to share eternal life (heaven)
with Him.

What is a baby born of a
virgin? It is Total Innocence.

Atheists (and often
agnostics) point out how totally impossible it is for a virgin to become
pregnant… yet have no problem accepting the idea that two cells in a huge
puddle of mud once joined together and begin producing life. There have
been a lot of big, long-lived mud puddles since the beginning and it hasn’t
happened again, but it is impossible to explain how some people think.

It has always puzzled me
why people doubt the virgin birth. Many of those people believe in God…
believe He created the world and the universe, but think He lacks the ability
to impregnate a woman via the Holy Spirit. It strikes me as… almost funny
it is so illogical.

So we have innocence and
God, the only absolute eternal Truth, in a manger on Christmas Day. That
is God’s greatest gift to this world and those who populate it. That is
what we celebrate four days after the date of the winter solstice.

Since no one recorded the date of the birth of Jesus Christ, no one
really knows the precise day we should celebrate. Does it really
matter? What we celebrate is the birth of innocent Truth that will
sacrifice His life so we can have eternal life – and that should be celebrated
every day of our lives.

Our atheist and agnostic friends scoff at the
December 25th date, pointing out to Christians that in the
olden days it was the celebration of the winter solstice and they laughingly
tell us we are so dumb we don’t know we are celebrating a heathen holiday.

The truth is, we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ on December
25th which happens to occur within less than a
week of those who did (and may still) celebrate the winter solstice.
Further, Jonathan Cahn, author of the blockbuster book The Harbinger, has put out a video on You Tube that makes an
excellent case for the birth date of our Lord and Savior as being April 1st.

If you are a /Christian, it matters not what day you celebrate His
birth. If you get a bee in your bonnet and want to celebrate His birthday
again in July, go for it!

It all gets back to John 3:16: “For God so loved the world
that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish
but will have eternal life.” That is what the greatest gift ever given
was and it is the reason the celebration of Christ’s birth involves
giving. It is the reason it involves love, family and celebration.
All are symbolic of God’s greatest gift to His creations: We, the people.

Our Christmas carols would have us believe that the night Jesus
was born, life was quiet and peaceful. It was not a “Silent Night” kind
of world. Very much like Washington, D.C. today, it was a tremendous time
of turbulence in Jerusalem. The Romans were not the kindest of rulers and
their political system was corrupt – a bit like America today – and the angel’s
message to shepherds in the field, “good will toward men” does not suggest that
people should show good will to one another. It tells us that God, through
the birth of His Son, is showing good will towards men. It says there
will be peace to men of good will. It does not say we should offer good
will to those who would destroy us or our Christian way of life or to those who
violate our laws.

There is a feeling of love in the air during the Christmas
holidays. People appear to forget that they are beings who not only need
to be loved, but need to love, as well. We seek love as a means of
finding happiness. The spirit of the season gives us hope… and perhaps
that is the thing that gets less significance in defining Christmas than it
deserves.

Christ signifies hope… for love, for a giving spirit, for kindness
and happiness – and, most important, for the possibility of eternal life.
Christ is the only vehicle on which humankind can rely for the hope of eternal
life. (I realize the Jews will argue with me on this point.)
Without hope, it is all but impossible for love to exist, let alone
thrive. To receive love, we must also give it.

The same is true of kindness. To even be able to find love,
kindness, happiness, et al, you must first have hope of being able to find them
and then you must be able to give them. Every worthwhile thing in life is
a two-way street. You give and you get. Without both, the result is
merely an imitation of the real thing (or a selfish grabbing of these things
for yourself without the ability to return them).

And that’s why I believe the key to understanding the meaning of
Christmas is to understand hope – which means learning to understand the
message of Jesus Christ – and to behave in a way that invites it not only into
your life, but into the lives of all the people in your world. With hope,
anything is possible. To have it, we must believe in it.

When you walk through the mall to return the necktie you don’t
like or the scarf that is the wrong color for you, a worthwhile objective is to
make three people – total strangers to you – smile. Smiles and hope go
together like white on rice.

It’s a great way, as Scrooge might say, to “keep Christmas in my
heart every day of the year.”

God bless and Merry
Christmas! (And now please smile so I can meet my objective of three
smiles from strangers every day!)

Sunday, December 17, 2017

FBI, Feminist, And Political Legacies

https://newswithviews.com/fbi-feminist-and-political-legacies/

Dec 17, 2017

Legacy.

What is it?

It’s an inheritance… a
heritage or a birthright. We all leave one behind us when we depart this
world. Actually, we leave more than one legacy behind us. There are
personal legacies… what kind of friend have you been? There are professional
legacies… what kind of employee or employer have you been? There are
creative legacies… and parental legacies, marital legacies, etc.

This year as we approach
Christmas and the Christian New Year, it is more important than usual to think
of the legacies we leave behind.

Why is it more important
than usual this year? We are going through a generational change – and it
is not pretty.

As power gets passed
from my son’s and daughter’s generation (my generation passed the power baton
to our children years ago), we are watching our failures as parents establish
themselves as generational standards of behavior – or, in many cases, a lack of
standard. Equally, today’s generation (my kids and yours) can see what
they did right as they watch their children assume political, social, familial,
and professional responsibility for the world. Unfortunately, it gives me
the heebie-jeebies to think of Millennials running anything, let alone the
world.

Legacies apply only to
individuals, not groups. If a group’s legacy is negative, it is because
of the negativity of the individuals who rose to power within that group.
The group’s individual members enabled their success. Legacies are the
exclusive property of individuals.

For example, the legacy
of those who have chosen to be Democrats for many years says, based on the
achievements and objectives of that group, you support abortion through the 9th
month. I am glad that is your legacy and not mine. You support
socialism rather than capitalism. You support the elimination of borders
for our great nation… though any halfway intelligent person recognizes that
borders define the nation and without them it cannot exist… and perhaps that is
your objective. You support sanctuary cities where those who enter our
nation unlawfully are entitled to more consideration in our courts, our welfare
offices, our schools and colleges, our health care system, than citizens who
have worked their entire lives to support the building of those things.

That is your legacy if
you are a Democrat… that and the open hatred you spew about the man who was
elected by your fellow citizens to be President of the United States. You
see, the hatred doesn’t just hit Donald Trump. It extends to those of us
who voted for and still strongly support him. You would rather destroy
your nation than accept his victory over your crooked as a dog’s hind leg
candidate, Hillary Clinton.

You accept and applaud
the violence of mobs in the street when the violence is directed against
President Trump and are so stupid that you do not realize when you destroy
respect for the Office of the President you are destroying citizen respect for
the nation… a nation on which you are dependent if you are to have a
good, happy and stable future. Such naïve behavior can only exist when
people reject the idea that their legacy is the result of their own choices.

Will the Millennials who
are inheriting your mess remember what you have done with gratitude and
affection and for the happy future you are providing this nation? Is
it one in which they can take pride? Or will they curse you for the
debt, the immorality, the lost history and indoctrination rather than
education? It will take them years to learn the truth – but they will
learn (eventually and whether or not they want to learn).

If you are a Republican,
you have two choices: You are an establishment Republican who, much like
Democrats, willingly support any moral compromise that strengthens your own
position of power at the expense of the average person you are supposed to be
serving. If names like Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Corey Gardiner (R-CO),
Paul Ryan (R-WI), John Thune (R-SD), Bill Kristol (Publisher, Weekly Standard),
and all of the others who went to opulent Sea Island to discuss ways they can
make President Donald Trump fail come to mind, you understand what I’m saying.

Or, you’re a
conservative Republican who supports our Constitution, the Rule of Law, and our
populist President. In that case, your political legacy is the
Constitution, truth, and the Rule of Law. Too, our legacy will be that of Donald Trump's because of our support.

The establishment
Republicans are actually worse than the amoral Democrats and their legacy will
be one of a small group which arrogantly believes their few biased minds know
better than American voters what is good for the people. They are worse
because they are traitors to the very thing that has given them the opportunity
to gain access to the power they so easily abuse. They are disgusting and
will one day pay a horrific penalty for their behavior.

Again, your actions are
not taken just against the President. Rather they are taken against all
of us who support him… millions of us to a handful of you. What arrogance
you have – and how badly you wear it.

“But you don’t know this
or that about Trump. Because of who we are and what we do we know trhings… and you
must believe we are doing what we think best for the nation.” They may
say something similar. And, to a degree, they may be right. They
may know things we don’t know which might change our minds if we knew them.

That doesn’t change the
fact that we, the voters of America, are entitled to enjoy our right decisions
and pay the penalty for the wrong ones we make so we can learn from them.
All we need to do either is the truth. Because of your duplicity, even if
you know things we don’t know, we will not have that opportunity because you
won’t tell us the truth. What does that say about you?

A small group (by
comparison to the total population) does not have the right to determine the
best path for the millions who will have to pay for whatever outcome may result
from your carelessness. That is your legacy… a personal legacy for each
of you. Your names will always be affiliated with Sea Island and what
many of us consider treasonous behavior.

That same principle
applies to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the National Security Agency (NSA). J.
Edgar Hoover left a legacy, didn’t he? It involved using the nation’s
primary law enforcement agency to gather dirt on anyone and everyone who could
influence the direction of the American government and he did not hesitate to
threaten them with it. Look how that’s turned out. That’s his
legacy.

How sad to see the FBI
lose the trust of the American people. President Trump may tell the
graduating class of FBI agents that he loves law enforcement and he’s got their
back, but most of the people will have a bit of disagreement with him about his
Justice Department and how well it is being run. They also disagree with
law enforcement’s abuse of power.

If I were writing a
novel, I would have a Senator named Jeff who is part of the Never-Trump group
of Republicans and I would assign him the responsibility of being the first
United States Senator to come out and publicly support this populist
non-politician. I would assign him the task of becoming personally close
to the candidate (who no one expects to win… I’d choose him because if the
candidate doesn’t win the nomination he is such a popular Senator he won’t lose
his seat just because he supported a losing presidential candidate).

When the candidate
unexpectedly wins the nomination, then even more unexpectedly wins the
presidential election, Jeff would be perfectly positioned to be appointed
Attorney General. In its aftermath, all of the elitists and insiders know
the biggest risk of this entire election cycle is for someone who wants to
clean the swamp to succeed at becoming President of the United States.

Going right along with
the plot, during his Senate Confirmation Hearings, Jeff would swear to remove
himself from any investigations involving charges made by the lying Democrats –
those whose candidate was so bad even they had a hard time stomaching
her. That will be a major part of the Democrat/Liberal legacy: the
2016 election campaign and all of the lies.

By recusing himself from
having anything having to do with the investigation of possible presidential
missteps involving Russia during the campaign, the Attorney General can avoid
providing badly-needed support for his President. He turns everything
over to the Assistant Attorney General who supports the FBI’s senior management
coup d’etat team.

My book plot would move
forward by having the AAG appointed to handle all matters related to the Russia
matter appoint a special prosecutor who is the best friend of
the former FBI Director the President fired. Surely this way they will be
able to cover up all of the covert and indelicate, unlawful behavior of senior
Bureau management members who are totally involved in trying to defeat the new
President? It is a devastating loss by the Democrat candidate whose power
supports their corruption. They are all sickened by her loss.
OMG! They might even get caught red-handed.

Little by little, however,
the new President finds ways to get the truth to the people. The Attorney
General looks ridiculous and incompetent, the Assistant Attorney General looks
like a naïve fool who no American wants running the nation’s law enforcement,
and all of the members of senior management look like traitors… including the
special prosecutor.

What a book plot!
What a legacy these fictional characters are leaving their nation! Are
they fictional you ask? Of course. They must be. No one could
be so oblivious to reality as these characters are.

As I said, only
individuals leave a legacy. When their individual stupidity and arrogance
enables the group’s objectives to depart from the group’s basic purpose for
being, their individual legacy suffers as does the group’s. The
rules are the same whether it’s the FBI, NOW, or the DNC. They will
forever be remembered for their treachery and lies. Mostly, they will be
remembered for disrespecting the American people and causing them to lose faith
in their public servants’ ability to handle the power they were given.
Once lost, trust is never regained.

It will take time, Mr.
President, for the people to forgive this grave violation of the public
trust. It will take time and tremendous dedication of those left to clean
up the mess.

As for total support for
law enforcement, as long as police departments and sheriff’s officers are
pulling over people for no apparent violation but are removing from them their
personal possessions (and never returning them without a court hearing which
may or may not be either affordable or constitutional), I will not subscribe to
your commitment to the thin blue line. Again, the AG’s office
should be taking action, but is not.

As the former editor of
the National Peace Officer’s Magazine, as a former police officer’s wife (and as a
former Denver police department employee), I say those words with great sorrow
but also with great respect for the rule of law so easily ignored by so many
cities, counties and states. It is unlawful and is a reflection of the
sewer that made those who believe senior managers at the FBI should make
political decisions on behalf of the American people.

Neither action is to be
tolerated in a nation of laws and justice. At the moment, we have
neither.

I could go on and on
about legacies left behind… the other one I will mention is feminism – which is
anything but representative of most American females. Their legacy will
be to declare that we must believe women who lie about sexual encounters
because women don’t lie about such things… not even 40 years later.

That’s an interesting
thought and it is being stated at the same time Los Angeles attorney Lisa Bloom
admits that the women who have charged the President of inappropriate behavior
towards them have been offered huge sums of money in return for their sudden
memories. It is rumored that Bloom’s law firm will take one-third of the
amounts paid to her clients by – we don’t know who. The amounts paid are,
according to news stories, in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. I
believe Bloom has denied much of this… I would, too — wouldn’t you?
That’s one woman I won’t believe.

That is the feminist
legacy. They forgot the charges made against the Duke lacrosse team in
2006. The North Carolina Attorney General said at the time: “The
Duke lacrosse case has shown that our society has lost sight of the most
fundamental principle of our legal system: the presumption of
innocence.” Some things don’t change and this is one of them.

We are to believe them
just because they are women. It tosses in the trash the rule of law
declaring that in America you are innocent until proven guilty, but feminists
don’t care. That’s part of their legacy: Ignorance of the law and
naiveté [perhaps gullibility is a better word].

Perhaps if female
morality was more apparent, you might convince me, but probably not. You
wear skirts up to your private parts (without telling men this is the new norm,
not an invitation to your bed… though that’s what it looks like to me), you
sleep with just about anyone from the time you get to high school, you don’t
understand that “choice” occurs at the moment you decide to have sex rather
than when you get pregnant and so believe the killing of a baby in your uterus
is an acceptable form of birth control… even through the ninth month.

Your group will not be
remembered for standing up for the rights of women. It will be remembered
for one of your leaders, a Hollywood elite, wanting to blow up the White
House. It will be remembered for murdering many of God’s most innocent
beings… babies in your own belly.

What you represent –
your legacy – is that of liberal Democrat women who have no moral
compass. That is your legacy… a group of individuals with no moral
compass.

Those are legacies.

And while you are thinking
about this, remember that you, too, dear reader will leave a legacy… one either
of meaning and positive purpose or of… what? Or, the groups you belong to
will leave a legacy for you.

Be careful whom you
support… it will be part of your legacy personally. And now you know why
I resigned from the Republican Party.

Sunday, December 03, 2017

SAN FRANCISCO -- OUT OF MY HEART FOREVER

News With Views
By Marilyn M. Barnewall
December 3, 2017https://newswithviews.com/san-francisco-out-of-my-heart-forever/I, for one, will never visit San Francisco
again. I will not even take a flight that will touch down at the San
Francisco airport to change planes. If I did, I’d be supporting the San
Francisco tax base which is used to support criminal illegal aliens.

I’m not just disgusted by the trial of Jose Ines
Garcia Zarate, 45, acquitted of murder and involuntary manslaughter charges, as
well as assault with a deadly weapon, I am sickened by it.

Jurors convicted the Mexican citizen of being a
felon in possession of a firearm, which could bring a three-year
sentence. He admitted to killing Kate Steinle as she and her father
walked along the San Francisco wharf together.

To read the actual
reasons Kate Steinle is dead (including violations by more than one department
of the federal government), go here to
read the lawsuit filed by the Steinles against numerous government departments
whose responsibility it was to keep her safe.

In essence, the City of San Francisco (and the
complicit State of California) have created an unsafe environment for American
citizens so they can provide special privileges for illegal aliens under the
false flag California chooses to call “Justice.”

It used to be a beautiful city. Wells Fargo Bank
was one of my clients during the 1980s and I spent quite a bit of time
there. Wells Fargo was one of the best banks in the country at that
time. Today, they are caught in criminal credit card violations for which
no one goes to prison… a reflection of the attitudes of the federal regulators
and the City of San Francisco where Wells Fargo’s corporate headquarters
resides.

Keep in mind, throughout history evil has always
imploded on itself.

Did you know that 22% of federal prisoners are
suspected illegal immigrants? Do you realize it costs American taxpayer
citizens $87.61 per day (or $31,977.65 per year) to pay for the prison upkeep
of just one criminal? It totals hundreds of billions of dollars… dollars
you work for every day.

From 2010 to 2014, ICE released a 30,558 illegal
criminal aliens from prison. Did you know that after their release 121 of
them were charged with homicide? Sounds like a small number by comparison
to the 30,558… tell that to the families of the 121 who were murdered.

We hear a lot about how special the “Dreamers” are
and how important it is for them to be able to continue their educations in the
United States. “Dreamers” are illegal aliens who go to school under the
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. They are so
grateful to be studying at American universities and colleges, 2,139 DACA
recipients have lost their permits to remain in America due to their criminal
activity.

Hispanics aren’t the only ones tearing our nation
apart.

Black consumers are being told by Black Lives Matter
to buy Christmas gifts only from black-owned businesses. I guess that
means that all whites should not buy from any black business… isn’t the Black
Lives Matter message “Shop by color”? So if you are racially sensitive and
if you’re white, stay out of black communities. Don’t buy anything from
them because Blacks don’t want to do business with you. They want
business from fellow blacks. I’ve always supported blacks supporting
black communities (though not quite like this).

Colin Kaepernick (of the San Francisco football team
– where else?) began the trendy “one knee” stance while the pre-football game
national anthem played. It shows total disregard for our military and the
men and women who have died defending America. It shows total disregard
for the American people who love their country and their flag. Then many
overpaid and under-educated teammates joined him in his protest – and NFL
football ratings have gone down ever since. I will do all I can to help
the trend… down, down, down for the NFL and Roger Goodell, the NFL Commissioner
who handled this fiasco (and others) so badly but thinks he is worth a $50
million per year (plus medical benefits for him and his family) for life.

You can’t make this stuff up!

The men who think a football field is the
appropriate place for political protests won’t really feel the result of their
behavior until it’s time to negotiate their next contract. Until then,
their ability to run with or kick or pass or receive a football and get paid millions
of dollars for doing so makes them feel they are making powerful political
statements. In reality, all they are doing is ruining the game and those
who finance it: the fans – most of whom love their country.

It’s fascinating to watch multi-millionaires
demonstrate because they are victims!

The economy of the old Soviet Union was never strong
and corruption, always present in big governments which must always grow as the
population increases, made the USSR vulnerable to corruption.

Communist China faces the same problem (even after
Mao killed over 65 million people to implement communism… that form of
government stupid American university professors teach their uninformed
students is wonderful; those student become violent in their support of it;
they – and their hero, Bernie Saunders – call it socialism but even Karl Marx
admitted socialism is a high-speed railroad to communism). Stalin killed
40 million Russians to get communism implemented. Doesn’t that sound like
a wonderful form of government?

Under communism the government represents total
power. It is huge and, as we have learned since President Trump began
cleaning the swam, the corruption runs very deep indeed in America’s
theoretically non-communist government.

My use of the word “theoretically” merely means that
too many people still believe they are free and are living in a republic (if
educated) or a democracy (if uneducated). In truth, however, government
considers itself the only important, dominant element of American life. Most of
those who “serve” the people as elected officials consider themselves elites
who reside high above the rest of us in their own mythical world of power and
corruption… a communist attitude.

There is no better example of government gone wild
and out of control than the San Francisco trial of Jose Ines Garcia Zarate for
the murder of Kate Steinle. Zarate was clearly guilty of murder – at the
very least, manslaughter. The comrades of San Francisco found him innocent
and because he has already spent 29 months in confinement he will probably see
little, if any, time behind bars in California.

What happened in San Francisco is a small indication
of the total lack of moral values, the total lack of appreciation of what it
means to be born an American citizen, and shows a lack of appreciation for
citizenship that results in a mindless devaluation of our nation.

For example, the Millennials who flood the streets
and willingly resort to violence if it means preventing a conservative from
speaking an opinion with which they disagree think we should have open
borders. Their university professors haven’t gotten around to telling
them that without borders there is no nation (the professors – men who will
never be recognized for their intelligence – probably don’t know.). One
of the things required to establish a nation is a clear statement of its
borders. In other words, if America has no borders, there is no America.

Gee, you don’t suppose that’s part of the plan, do
you?

The dumbed-down generations (at least two of them…
maybe three) have reached a point in American society where truth has no
value. Without truth there is no freedom, just political correctness
where one group of powerful people can tell the rest of society what they may
and may not think and say because if you disagree with them you are guilty of
hate speech. In Great Britain you can go to jail for hate speech.
In reality, the only hate speech being spewed through society comes from the
mouths of the politically correct and powerful elitists who think themselves
better able to run your life than you are.

It is reminiscent of the old Soviet Union.

According to Gorbachev’s Prime Minister, Nikolai
Ryzhkov, the “moral [nravstennoe] state of the society” in 1985 was its “most
terrifying” feature: “[We] stole from ourselves, took and gave bribes,
lied in the reports, in newspapers, from high podiums, wallowed in our lies,
hung medals on one another. And all of this – from top to bottom and from
bottom to top.”

It sounds like America, 2017, doesn’t it? It
reminds me of the $3 trillion Donald Rumsfeld announced was missing from the
Defense Department in 2001… he didn’t know what had happened to all that money
– but they were looking for it. It was never found… and Rumsfeld made his
statement the day before 9/11/2001 so it got little attention as Americans sat
in disbelief over the loss of over 3,000 fellow citizens.

It also reminds me of Representative Maxine Waters
who just a few days ago told her black audience to remember that Congressman
John Conyers is a friend to women… an icon in the black community. Of
course, Waters hasn’t had a cogent thought in her head for… possibly her entire
life.

As Gorbachev’s Prime Minister, Nikolai Ryzhkov, said just before the
fall of the USSR, “[We] stole from ourselves, took and gave bribes, lied in the
reports, in newspapers, from high podiums, wallowed in our lies, hung medals on
one another.” He could not have defined the actions of Waters (and other
politicians) more successfully had he tried.

We free illegal alien murderers in San Francisco,
while Michigan voters elect John Conyers to office so he can sexually insult
and intimidate women for the 50 years he’s been in Congress. Even
died-in-the-wool liberal Cokie Roberts admitted on television that all women in
Washington knew better than to get on an elevator with Conyers,

We have so many women coming forward to accuse
Senator Al Franken of Minnesota of putting his hands where they do not belong
that it’s hard to keep an accurate count.

Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze made equally
painful comments about lawlessness and corruption dominating the Soviet Union
in its final days. During the winter months of 1984-85, he told Gorbachev
that “Everything is rotten. It has to be changed.”

“Sometimes people hold a core belief that is very
strong,” Frantz Fanon said in his 1952 book Black Skin, White Masks (originally
published in French as Peau Noire, Masques Blancs). “When they are
presented with evidence that works against that belief, the new evidence cannot
be accepted. It would create a feeling that is extremely uncomfortable,
called cognitive dissonance. And because it is so important to protect the core
belief, they will rationalize, ignore and even deny anything that doesn’t fit
with the core belief.”

If that doesn’t define victims, liberal progressives
and most Millennials, I don’t know what does.

During their final days as a world power, the Soviet
Union allowed cognitive dissonance to rule its better judgment… as so many Americans
are doing in 2017. The handwriting on the wall was pretty clear for
Gorbachev. The Soviet economy was failing. They did none of the necessary
things to save their economy. In 2017, the handwriting on the wall is
pretty clear for the American people.

The economy is failing. The number of closed
retail outlets tripled this year over last. Read
this article. Don’t confuse a climbing stock market with a
successful economy. President Trump is doing all he can to save it, but
he is having to crawl over the body blocks of liberal progressives (both
Republican and Democrat) to do so.

The people and the Congress do none of the necessary
things to save their economy. Why? Go re-read the definition of cognitive
dissonance. That’s why. We have a classic fight going on between fear-motivated
people who want government to take care of them and who willingly pay the price
of lost freedom to get that care (evil), versus those who value freedom and the
self-responsibility it requires (good).

As Eduard Shevardnadze said, “Everything is
rotten. It has to be changed.”

As I would say it, “There is no Rule of Law in
America today.”

No one listened then; no one is listening in America
now. The primary reason? Cognitive dissonance.

Kate Steinle was murdered by her government.
The State of California, the City of San Francisco and the federal government
have one primary responsibility as legitimate governments: Provide for
the safety of citizens. They did not. How legitimate then are they
as governments?

California is so focused on making sure illegal
aliens have access to the benefits people like Kate Steinle worked hard and
paid taxes to provide, they forgot about her safety and the safety of all other
citizens… and tourists. I invite you to join me in avoiding any kind of
California vacation or doing business with any online California-based
businesses.

Why would you want to add to the tax base of a
government that so abuses American citizens?

Such comments as those from Soviet leaders Nikolai
Ryzhkov and Eduard Shevardnadze a mere half-dozen years before the failure of
what Reagan termed “the Evil Empire” should cause chills down the spines of any
American reading the quotes for in many ways our government has become “the
Evil Empire.”

The words spoken by Soviet politicians just before
their fall are a mirror image of this nation’s social and political disorder as
I write these words.

Say a prayer that President Trump will be able to
succeed… and another prayer that the Never Trumpers like Senators Mitch
McConnell (R-KY), Corey Gardner (R-CO), John McCain (R-AZ), Jeff Flake (R-AZ)
and all the others are in the final days of their treasonous service.

You might also want to say a prayer that McConnell
wakens Senators so they begin passing some of the 300 Bills approved and sent
to them by the House of Representatives – laws which have been ignored by
McConnell, McCain, Gardner, Corker, Thune… one of which is Kate’s Law.

About Me

Marilyn MacGruder Barnewall began her career in 1956 as a journalist with the Wyoming Eagle in Cheyenne. During her 20 years (plus) as a banker and bank consultant, she wrote extensively for The American Banker, Bank Marketing Magazine, Trust Marketing Magazine, was U.S. Consulting Editor for Private Banker International (London/Dublin), and other major banking industry publications. Barnewall taught private banking at Colorado University and has authored seven banking books, one dog book, and two works of fiction and one biography.
Barnewall is the former editor of The National Peace Officer Magazine and has written editorials for the Denver Post, Rocky Mountain News and Newsweek, etc. She has written for News With Views, World Net Daily, Canada Free Press, Christian Business Daily, Business Reform, and others. She has been quoted in Time, Forbes, Wall Street Journal and other national and international publications. She can be found in Who's Who in America (2005-10), Who's Who of American Women (2006-10), Who's Who in Finance and Business (2006-10), and Who's Who in the World (2008).